


spaces between forever are enough

by justicarwrites



Category: The Originals (TV)
Genre: Based on Recent Spoilers, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Pregnancy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 19:48:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11653506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justicarwrites/pseuds/justicarwrites
Summary: Freya's fallen into old self-destructive habits as a result of a new Mikaelson family crisis, and Keelin's fears for her well-being are at an all-time high because of something she's still yet to tell Freya.or: the one where some things are worth surviving for.





	spaces between forever are enough

**Author's Note:**

> Based on some season 5 spoilers that have been floating around recently, as I have not been able to stop thinking about them since. I kept this intentionally vague due to how little we know about the details of the next season, but wanted to write a little something about it anyway. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think! Questions/comments/concerns are always welcome.
> 
> Thank you!

Eight years.

A mere moment in the eyes of an immortal, and the foundations of a lifetime for those without an eternity ahead of them.

For those whose lives are finite, eight years is enough to build something real, enough to start healing deeply embedded wounds, and enough to make a person believe old habits can indeed be broken. It’s enough to make a mortal feel secure.

But when dealing with those that do have a chance at a literal forever, the longevity felt within a mortal heart because of eight years of relative peace can threaten to collapse within the blink of an eye.

Keelin had trouble reconciling that the eight years that meant absolutely everything to her could mean so little in the grand scheme of all that’s endless, much as she had trouble accepting the fact that they were on the precipice of something that felt much too like another war.

And yet most of her difficulty came with grappling the reality that Freya was once again amid all of it in another desperate attempt to save the already shattered pieces of her family.

Maybe Keelin was naïve to ever have believed that they moved past Freya’s reflex to push her away when threats are looming, or foolish to ever possess hope that she no longer valued her own well-being so little as to overwork herself to the point of exhaustion and dehydration.

As she entered the bell tower and saw Freya standing hunched over a stack of books on her desk, she couldn’t help but feel as if they were right back where they were eight years ago.

It wasn’t a good feeling.

“Hey…”

Her greeting wasn’t gentle enough to prevent the tension in the room that came after it.

“Keelin, hi.” Freya threw a glance over her shoulder and returned to whatever spell book she was pouring over. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“I wanted to bring you lunch.” It was more than that, she’d assembled an entire care package filled with everything from Advil and granola bars to bottles of water and a copy of the 8-week ultrasound pictures she just got taken at an appointment Freya didn’t have a clue she had. “Figured you probably haven’t eaten in a while.”

When Keelin set the bag down on the desk beside her, Freya sounded sincere but distracted, and altogether too distant to reach in the “thank you” she uttered.

She made no move to reach for it, and the only indication that she remained aware of Keelin’s lingering presence was the slight lean she positioned her body at in order to be physically closer to her. Unfortunately, such subconscious attention wasn’t enough for the conversation they needed to have, and Keelin was growing increasingly irritated at the lack of even simple eye-contact.

Keelin moved in closer, pressing a firm hand to Freya’s shoulder and moving her eyes along the indecipherable pages before her. “So, this is what’s been keeping your side of the bed cold the last few nights.”

“I need to find a way to delay the Hollow’s magic to bring my family back together just long enough to devise a more permanent solution.” Her words were practiced like they’d been said in every way but aloud, a mantra repeated in the hope that eventually the key to the problem would somehow manifest if she could only use those words enough.

Freya looked at her then, the quiet desperation in her eyes all but completely obscured by the utter fatigue across her face. The crease between her brows was more prominent than it had been in ages, deep bags under her eyes spoke to how long it’d been since she’d last slept, and it was clear that she’d missed a spot when cleaning blood from her face god knows how long ago.

She was a mess, and remembering how vibrant she’d been just over a week ago robbed the air from Keelin’s lungs.

“And I see it’s caused more lovely hemorrhages.” Concern laced her voice as she lifted her thumb to clear off the dried blood from the side of her girlfriend’s nose.

Freya wiped her hand roughly over the spot Keelin had touched, side-stepped away, and looked back to her book, like she was genuinely hurt by her worry.

“You should know by now that powerful magic comes at a price.”

Her skin burned and a weight sat heavy on her chest threatening to collapse it if she didn’t push it off with all the strength in her body. She was well practiced in the art of controlling the anger that coursed through her veins because of what she was, she’d only been doing it her entire life, but with the added difficulty of handling the way her pregnancy affected her mood levels, it wasn’t a simple task.

“Freya− “

“Keelin, I don’t have time for this.” She backed away from the table and strode toward one of the bookcases along the wall. The move was purely to impose distance between them, and Keelin wasn’t having any of it.

“No, you don’t get to do that. Not after all this time, Freya. You do not get to put yourself on the line and then be frustrated that I’m worried about you,” She followed her across the room earnestly.

She turned on her heels so quickly that Keelin was forced to take a step back. “I won’t just give up on them.”

“I’m not asking you to!”

Keelin felt something slipping and the further it fell the harder it was to breathe.

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand. In fact, it was her crystal-clear understanding of what family meant to Freya that terrified her. The fear that she’d be lost to the family they’d been trying to build together over the last near-decade because of her efforts to protect the family that she was forcibly separated from for a millennium tore at her bit by bit, chipping off pieces of that safe warmth in her chest she’d felt with the other woman for so long and replacing it with a cold emptiness she’d grown to associate with loss.

She was afraid. And the heartbeat she got to see on the monitor earlier that morning, the heartbeat she hadn’t been able to help but attune her hearing to since she left the appointment drummed that fear deeper into her gut with every repetition of its steady rhythm.

“What do you want me to do, Keelin? The little things I can work at but I cannot change the fact that I will defend my own when my family is threatened. I cannot change the fact that it is going to be dangerous. I have _never_ been entirely safe because of who I am, you know that.”

She did know, and the weight of that had never felt more crippling than when it was spoken aloud in that moment.

Something was slipping. It was something that felt much too fragile and Keelin didn’t know if she was more terrified about what would happen if she let it fall or that it might shatter with her attempt to catch it.

Freya took a step back then like she’d just noticed that something was threatening to fall. She swallowed, and Keelin saw tears loom at the corners of her eyes, “is that suddenly too much for you?” Her voice was seconds from cracking.

She never wanted Freya to have to choose. But toeing the line between ensuring she isn’t put in that position, and asking her to realize that surviving for family is just as noble as a willingness to die for it wasn’t something easy.

In her struggle to find that balance, she hesitated.

“You knew this is what I was when we started this, I told you, and you chose to stay. Why are you having so much trouble accepting it now?”

Keelin realized in the silence that followed that a loss like this wouldn’t have been simpler than a loss in the way she’d been fearing.

“It’s not just me I’m thinking about, Freya.”

She shook her head, too tired for the pieces to immediately fall into place despite their years of trying, “what do you− “

She watched the realization set in slowly.

It hit Freya’s eyes first, a certain lightness washed over them that had nothing to do with the afternoon sun that penetrated through the small room’s blinds. She shifted her weight repeatedly, like a change in her world’s axis had her trying to regain the ability to balance. Freya moved like she wanted to step towards her only to hold herself back, look down to her hands, and then back up again. “A−a−are you sure?”

She swallowed before nodding slowly, too transfixed on all Freya was saying with nothing more than the look on her face to speak.

Freya’s bottom lip quivered with the affirmative.

She stepped forward, hand held out hesitantly in a silent question before Keelin nodded again.

Then, instead of pressing her hand against her, Freya dropped to her knees, bringing herself eye-level with Keelin’s stomach. She raised her hands to grip her sides with a delicacy few knew Freya possessed, and she pressed her lips against the barely perceptible baby-bump with such care one would think it was necessary for its growth. She turned her head and resting her ear against Keelin, like she could hear their child’s heartbeat if only she listened hard enough.

The sight was breathtaking, and Keelin struggled to hold onto her thoughts regarding the issue at hand because conceptualizing anything outside of what existed in that moment was near-impossible. When she felt her shirt dampening where Freya’s face pressed flush against her, she stopped trying to.

She wove her fingers through Freya’s tresses, and thought of the vow the woman before her swore centuries ago, of the child she almost had despite it, of the loss she endured, and thought most of all of what it meant for her to have a second chance like this.

As if reaching the same conclusion at exactly the right time, Freya pulled back and uttered like the words were something sacred, “I will make it out of this, I promise.”

Keelin couldn’t tell exactly who it was meant to comfort until Freya looked up at her, tears still flowing freely, “for both of you.”

It may have been irrational how quickly that familiar warmth reclaimed its space in her chest because of how heavy the weight of her love felt mere minutes before. It may have been foolish to let go of the fears she’d been holding onto for weeks considering that there wasn’t any less danger afoot. And it may have been naïve to put faith in those words like they formed some sort of blood-bond.

But Freya Mikaelson was on her knees, looking her in the eye with a level of sincerity that sent shivers down her spine, and holding her like everything precious in the world was contained in her hands.

Keelin thought about vows.

She thought about eight years of peace and happiness and tiny eternities that only two people whose lives were finite could possibly understand.

And Keelin chose to believe her.

She helped Freya stand, planted a kiss on her knuckles, wiped the tears from her eyes, and said with a playful lilt in her tone, “Good, because if you even think about making me raise this kid alone…”

They smiled with their eyes locked, and where they stood was blissfully reminiscent of a time they shared eight years before.

The moment was but a blink of an eye relative to the forever some would experience, but it was theirs.

And that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> find me @maggiesawyer on tumblr


End file.
